Casually sitting on an exquisite bench carved from warm jade, Chen Luo picked up a bunch of spiritual fruits that resembled grapes and emitted a sweet fruity fragrance, eating them at a leisurely pace.
Unbeknownst to Chen Luo, who was spacing out in the Yunyang Pavilion, a certain unfortunate girl had decided to embark on the path of the strong for his sake.
She had even set him as her goal at the end of the road, intending to snatch him back from the clutches of the demonesses!
Ever since being pulled into this divine boat named Yunyan Pavilion, Chen Luo had been left alone in a spacious living room, yet no one had come to converse with him.
As Chen Luo sat on the warm jade bench, eating spiritual fruits and gazing at the suddenly shattered sky outside the pavilion, he began to ponder:
"The ascension to immortality in this world is quite interesting. Based on my perception, the spatial intensity of the upper world requires a power close to that of an Abyssal Walker to shatter."
"Yet here, these Ascended Immortals seem to treat this level of power as a mere means of travel?"
Outside Yunyan Pavilion lay vast expanses of a hazy, gray world. Chen Luo knew that this was the blurred zone between the void and the world after the fundamental space had been shattered.
In theory, one could travel back to the void from here, but after Chen Luo's True Sight carefully observed it, he abandoned the idea.
Tens of millions of miles beyond the hazy zone, it was enclosed by a pure white crystalline barrier.
Chen Luo had seen similar existences, so he immediately understood its nature: the world's amniotic fluid of the lower and middle worlds, and in this upper world, it was called the World Barrier!
It was this World Barrier that prevented Chen Luo from using his "Pocket Kingdom" to teleport between territories.
After glancing at the World Barrier again, Chen Luo's thoughts returned to the concepts of ascension and cultivation in this world.
According to Gong Xiaoyan's introduction, cultivation in this world had only two major stages.
Once mortals with aptitude absorbed spiritual energy into their bodies and underwent marrow cleansing and body refinement, they stepped onto the first stage of the Dao Path. In terms of life level, this was a direct leap from Tier 0 to Tier 1.
However, behind this seemingly huge leap lay immense danger, which was also the first tribulation of Dao Path cultivation: spiritual energy infusion.
The spiritual energy infused at the beginning was actually very violent, so without proper supervision, newly cultivating cultivators were very likely to be torn apart by the spiritual energy during the marrow cleansing and body refinement process.
The entire process of absorbing spiritual energy into the body and refining the body took about a hundred days, a process generally referred to by the cultivation world as "Hundred Days Foundation Establishment."
During this process, the final results achieved by people of different aptitudes, with the aid of different methods and external conditions, varied greatly.
Chen Luo understood this; for instance, a certain infant Heavenly Emperor could defeat grass spirits and sea gods with a single punch when he first started cultivating.
It was all cultivation, but the gap between people was sometimes greater than the gap between humans and dogs.
In the subsequent cultivation, from the first to the third stage of the Dao Path, a large amount of free-floating spiritual energy would be absorbed into the cultivator's body. The scattered spiritual energy points would continuously gather and increase.
Upon reaching the peak of the third stage of the Dao Path, the spiritual energy within the body would completely transform into spiritual mist. At this point, cultivators needed to overcome the second tribulation of the Dao Path: spiritual energy liquefaction.
Chen Luo had not experienced it, but listening to Gong Xiaoyan's description, Chen Luo felt as if he were listening to a woman describe her menstrual period – it was painful, no matter what.
After overcoming this tribulation, the cultivation from the fourth to the sixth stage of the Dao Path involved continuing to gather spiritual energy, allowing the liquefied spiritual energy within the body to increase. By the peak of the sixth stage of the Dao Path,
Cultivators would face the third tribulation of the Dao Path stage: spiritual liquid solidification!
Gong Xiaoyan was a cultivator of the ninth stage of the Dao Path. While explaining to Chen Luo, she even released her condensed Natal Spiritual Crystal from her body, allowing Chen Luo to touch and observe it up close.
Chen Luo could only express his deep gratitude and then refuse, after all, it was better not to touch things produced from someone else's body carelessly.
However, the power contained within that spiritual crystal did make Chen Luo look at it with considerable interest.
The Sunfire within the Number Nine game world was a controllable nuclear fusion facility achieved by Kowloon Company using Soul Steel as a shortcut, thereby enabling Kowloon Company to achieve a convenient infinite energy source.
But at that time, the spiritual crystal of the ninth stage of the Dao Path before Chen Luo's eyes contained even more powerful energy than the True Guard-class Sunfire.
The cultivation system of this world, after reaching the seventh stage of the Dao Path, likely meant that everyone could be considered a humanoid Tsar Bomba if placed in a lower world!
However, this was not surprising. After all, with each world ascension, gravity, spatial stability, and world carrying capacity would all increase exponentially.
Mortals who could live in an upper world would be like little supermen if placed in a lower world.
It was just that the world's stability and carrying capacity suppressed the destructive power they displayed.
However, thinking of this, Chen Luo's doubts about ascension grew even greater.
After the ninth stage of the Dao Path, cultivators could enjoy a lifespan of a thousand years.
At this point, they had two choices: either live honestly until death, or take a gamble.
Face the Great Tribulation of Ascension!
If they passed, they would become true immortals of the mortal world, with infinite lifespan, only falling to millennium calamities and the calamities of war.
If they failed, they would perish, losing even the chance for reincarnation!
...
From the perspective of life level, Chen Luo was certain that those few so-called Ascended Immortals flying in the sky were, at most, just entering the second tier.
Judging by the nine levels of ascension, they were probably only at the first or second level of ascension.
Yet, this ability to control divine boats and casually shatter the space of an upper world was enough to injure ordinary Tier 2 Purgatory-class combatants.
Their life levels were not high, but their combat power was very strong!
The defensive capabilities of cultivators in this world were unknown, but their offensive power definitely surpassed their current life intensity. Perhaps this was also a characteristic of spiritual energy civilization.
Chen Luo shook his head. Spiritual energy civilization was likely a shortcut, gaining extraordinary combat power through the use of such divine boats.
However, life levels became increasingly important in later stages.
While the gap in combat power in the early stages could perhaps be compensated by external factors like divine boats, by the ninth level of ascension, or even the Void Refining realm, or realms like Chen Luo's True Transformation domain, challenging higher levels through external means would become increasingly difficult.
For example, when Chen Luo fought with Lord Long Jiu, Chen Luo was very sure that the gap in their life levels was perhaps only one or two tiers, but the actual combat result was a complete crushing.
And when the Doomsday Game began, Chen Luo could even challenge Tier 1 Calamities across levels with his powerful multiple talents at the Tier 0 Purgatory level.
"However, the spiritual energy civilization of this world does have many aspects that can be learned from."
"Next, I can use the cultivation of this spiritual energy civilization to see if I can reach a higher life level."
"After all, this world is confirmed to have so-called 'Dao Harmonization' level beings whose life levels are above mine!"